CHENNAI: The enforcement of mask is extremely poor in the State and the district administrations must not give in to ‘Covid fatigue’ due to the low number of daily positive cases, Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan on Tuesday wrote to all the district administrations across the State.
In the communication addressed to the collectors and the Corporation Commissioner, shared with The New Indian Express, Dr Radhakrishnan said an absolute non compliance to mask and physical distancing is being observed in many parts of the State.
“No mask and social distancing was observed during Deepavali holidays at the local tourist destinations and waterfalls such as Hogenakkal, Velankanni, waand also religious places like temples, mosques, dargahs and churches during the Deepavali holidays,” said Dr Radhakrishnan.
He told the collectors to ensure that at all levels, meeting of traders association is done to ensure self regulation in addition to visible and demonstrable action of fines by police, health, revenue and local bodies.
“Since most states do antigen tests , we should be alert for travel related clusters also. Within state fever surveillance and monitoring trend of SARI and ILI is the key with follow up of positives through contact tracing and if two to three or more cases are traced to a function, family gathering, shops etc then too testing, isolation and treating should be done apart from containment at the place and source of occurence,” he said.
Radhakrishnan pointed out that unless testing is increased to pre-festival levels, the State is likely to miss emerging hotspots and clusters. “Next 14 to 28 days is important,” he added.
“There has been a sustained dip in positives and test positivity. However number tested is also coming down of late due to reduced number of persons coming to camps and correspondingly less numbers of persons to be traced as contact,” he added.